Flights begin to normalize after pilot strike

Passengers are left stranded at the Arentina''s airports due to a strike affecting Aerolíneas Argentinas (AA) flights (file photo).

Argentina’s flag carrier flights began to normalize at noon today after the AAA, the APLA and the UALA unions, three major pilots groups among air traffic workers, complied with the mandatory conciliation declared this morning by the Ministry of Labour.

The pilots had launched a strike at 7 am today demanding salary talks to be resumed. Aerolíneas Argentinas (AA), in turn, said the walkout “broke” current wage agreements.

All domestic flights, as well as those to Santiago de Chile and Asuncion, were cancelled. AA described the unions’ call to paralyze activities not only in the Buenos Aires province Ezeiza international airport but also in other airports across the country as “ungodly, disproportionate and unreasonable”.

“It is an act of huge irresponsibility; this group of workers, privileged by their high salaries and luxurious working conditions, is not only doing wrong to passengers but puts at risk the sustained process of recovery of our national flag carrier,” the company led by Mariano Recaldo said in a statement.

According to the AAA union conducted by Juan Pablo Brey, workers are demanding the company to bring salary negotiations forward to September 1 instead of September 30.

“Several letters have been sent to the company to bring forward the negotiations and have had no answer,” sources at the AAA union told media.